Net Galley ARC provided in exchange for an honest review, yada, yada, yada...

I can't think of enough good things to say about this book. Honestly. It has a little of everything I typically want in fantasy; antihero protagonists, an intriguing world, dark and gritty obstacles/antagonists, high stakes to keep the plot moving along, and of course, a sense of humor. My take on a couple of key elements as follows...

Character(s)/Voice: The main character, Kinch Na Shannack, is a Galtish thief indebted to the Takers (thieves' guild) and is an enjoyable narrator throughout the story. I was fortunate enough to get to listen to the audiobook, which was fantastically narrated by Christopher Buehlman, and it is easily one of the greatest audiobook narrations I've ever listened to. Having Buehlman do the voice acting allows us to hear exactly *how* he means us to hear Kinch tell the tale; and it feels like you're in a dingy bar with some scrawny, patchy-bearded drunkard telling you some slurred story about thieves and goblins.

Structure: If you enjoy traditional adventure formulas, you should like this story. It's much grittier than older fantasy, certainly edging toward the grimdark wheelhouse from time to time, but the story is shaped like your traditional fantasy; a party of adventurers with *mostly* shared and/or compatible goals go on an quest to distant lands and encounter multiple setbacks along the way! How fun!

Magic System: The magic systems are entertaining, and might serve as good inspiration for a D&D campaign. While there are powerful magics, they're kinda soft (for now) and left a bit mysterious, while others are more self-explanatory, such as magical tattoos. A few rules are set in stone and I'd like to see how they play out in the future of this trilogy. There's certainly a lot more to uncover in this department.

Worldbuilding: Regional mythology and history are often used as a reference to explain peoples' attitudes and behaviors. This is particularly true in regards to a recent war that the world is still recovering from. Each culture is fascinating to learn about and either add to understanding characters or understanding more of the history and relationships of the world. I'm partial to the (I think apparent) Celtic/Gaelic influence on Galtish culture.

I have no gripes about this book, really. I found myself looking forward to my commutes to and from work so I could hear what happens next. If you're in the mood for an entertaining story with rich worldbuilding and a fantastic narrative voice, give this book a read/listen.

I did a hybrid reading of the ebook and listening to the audiobook. While both were great, I think I would lean towards the audiobook. There is just something about books being read by the author that makes it such a great experience. I felt that I needed to be sitting in a tavern by a roaring fire with a mug of beer and listening to the story. I enjoyed the world (although I would like more world building in subsequent books), characters, and the magic. The book probably won't be for everyone, but I found it very enjoyable.

Received an audiobook ARC of this title from the publisher through NetGalley.

DNF @ 24%

This is an interesting concept, but between the narration and the overall flow of the story I'm having a difficult time concentrating. So I'm moving on to other things...

The Blacktongue Thief was one eccentric little fantasy novel, and I mean that in the best way possible! Now, I’ve followed Christopher Buehlman for a while, and I’m a big fan of his horror novels. This one is my fifth book by the author, his first fantasy, and like so many others I was curious to see what he could bring to the genre.

The story follows Kinch Na Shannack, a blacktongue thief who belongs to the Takers Guild in every sense of the word. They trained him, taught him everything he knew, and now he owes them for all that education, an obligation marked by a tattoo on his face where it will remain until his debt is repaid. Every day he gets closer to his goal, doing jobs for the Guild, until one day he picks the wrong mark and ends up being slapped down by Galva, a warrior and veteran of the goblin wars, sworn to the goddess of death. She is on a quest too, searching for her missing queen to restore to her rightful place on the throne.

Before long, Kinch finds himself embarking on a shared quest with Galva, instructed by the Guild to follow her and learn more about her mission. But there will be many dangers along the way, including mysterious forces that will want to stop or hinder them. Kinch himself is desperate to be rid of the Guild, but they are secretive about their motives and when our protagonist eventually finds out the truth, he is left at a crossroads on how to move forward, caught between his loyalties and his desire for freedom.

Without a doubt, your overall impression of The Blacktongue Thief will make or break with the question, “How do you feel about Kinch Na Shannack?” Our protagonist is a smooth-talking rogue with no filter. Not only is his very distinctive voice peppered with bawdy obscenities, lurid metaphors and other creatively crude insults, but his internal thoughts also run about a mile a minute, making the reading experience akin to listening to an overactive child talk about their day, i.e., with lots of tangents, the inability to get to the point any time fast and, of course, an exaggerated and sometimes unreliable narrative. While he’s spewing words like a broken watermain, he’s also prone to burst into song or randomly launch into funny anecdotes to make you laugh. Bottom line, I suppose, you’ll either want to throttle him or give him a fist bump.

Thankfully, I fell into the latter group. Despite some of his more exasperating traits, Kinch is also a clever, resourceful and persevering thief, and I enjoyed his smart-ass sense of humor. Eventually though, you must learn to appreciate some of his more admirable habits, or else getting through this novel with your patience intact will be a challenge. For you see, not only do you have to contend with the larger-than-life personality of the main character, the haphazard nature of his narration also prevents the plot of The Blacktongue Thief from following any kind of conventional structure or storytelling. At times, the story is little more than a string of action sequences punctuated by moments where the characters trade quick barbs and snarky one-liners, well executed as they may be. Other times, it can be a bit like watching all the episodes of a TV show out of order. The writing doesn’t do much handholding, leaving the reader to work certain things out for themselves, and while you may end up appreciating this in later parts of the book, the earlier sections might result in some frustration.

Like I said, this was a very eccentric novel, whose elements might not jive as well for those who prefer more traditional fantasy stories or a more structured narrative. Being a bit off-the-wall, though, does have its advantages. The world-building was impressive, straddling the line between quirky and gritty. The many different cultures, deities, traditions, and magic systems are unique and interesting, though it probably wouldn’t hurt if the author had provided just a bit more historical insight or explanation into some of these aspects, just to add some context.

Bottom line, being something of an oddball, The Blacktongue Thief might work for you or it might not, but I personally enjoyed it. I came to this book as a fan of Christopher Buehlman so I already knew he could tell a good story, but now I know he can also spin a bold and funny fantasy yarn that’s one of kind, and I’m sure this one will gain him even more followers.

This one wasn’t for me.

I was really excited to read this one, but I just couldn’t get into it. I kept waiting for something to pull me in, but I found myself waiting and waiting.

I definitely think that fans of fantasy will enjoy it, but it wasn’t my cup of tea.

My thanks to Macmillan Audio for a review copy via NetGalley of the unabridged audiobook of ‘The Blacktongue Thief’ by Christopher Buehlman. The author also serves as the audiobook’s narrator with a running time of 12 hours, 26 minutes.

While his first fantasy novel Christopher Buehlman is an established writer, poet, and playwright and toured Renaissance fairs for many years with his Christophe the Insultor act.

I was hooked by this entertaining fantasy from the start, especially the moment a stag-sized battle raven entered the story. Kinch Na Shannack along with a small band of fellow thieves are waiting by a forest road for a traveler to come along. Kinch is a Galt, a people born with black tongues, and is the titular character.

Kinch’s reason for being there is that he owes the Takers Guild a small fortune for his education as a thief. Yet he and his gang have picked the wrong mark as the traveler and her battle corvid make short work of the gang. Galva of Ispanthia is a corvid knight, a survivor of the brutal goblin wars, and handmaiden of the goddess of death. She is on a mission to find her queen, missing since a distant northern city fell to giants.

Kinch is lucky to escape with his life, and he soon finds his fate entangled with Galva's. They make an uneasy alliance and with a few companions embark on an epic journey with many adventures.

‘The Blacktongue Thief’ fits the description of a picaresque novel with Kinch’s blacktongue-in-cheek account chronicling their journey. It has plenty of action yet is lightened by elements of comedy. It also has Bully Boy, a cat whose special qualities I won’t detail in order to avoid spoilers (he was inspired by a little cat in the author’s life).

So, with a strong female co-lead, witches, a kraken, a battle raven, a cat, and other delights Christopher Buehlman’s first foray into fantasy definitely was a big hit with me.

With respect to the audiobook, Christopher Buehlman has a strong, clear voice with a lilting accent that seemed perfect for Kinch’s banter. Music is used to great effect within the audiobook including vocal musical performances by Andrew Sklar for the occasional song and incidental music by Owain Phyfe and the New World Renaissance Band.

Incorporating songs and music into the narrative gave a bardic air to the story, which felt very fitting for a fantasy novel such as this being a continuation of the storytelling tradition that has come down the centuries.

I felt that Christopher Buehlman’s world building was excellent and that he managed to create a novel that balanced the seriousness of epic fantasy yet also was a bit of a romp. It’s not an easy combination but I felt that he succeeded.

This is listed as Book 1 in a series, so I will be looking forward to more adventures within this richly detailed world. I also plan to seek out his horror novels.

Highly recommended.

I requested this one because it might be a 2021 title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book is not my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one rather than push myself to finish it only to give it a poor review.

I potentially liked this one, but I didn't find the narration worked with this particular fantasy story. I will try to track down a physical copy instead.

I love the cover and could listen to the narrator to the audio book all day but the story was very abrasive and crude. I felt at times disoriented and unfamiliar with the world. I do think this will be popular amongst some and I do know people I would recommend it to. So if you like a book that has no filter so to speak then this is one for you.

This story is told from Kinch Na Shannack’s POV and he is about as snarky as you can get! Even though the story and world is pretty dark, Kinch’s narration of events had me smiling and laughing almost the entire time. Buehlman strikes the perfect balance with his humor, ensuring that it feels natural for the character and does not hinder the overall flow of the story. I experienced this story as an audiobook, and so some of the humor and narrative style might have come off a little better with the added bonus of Buelhman’s performance.

There are a lot of familiar elements in Kinch’s world such as goblins, trolls, and krakens. However, it is also a dynamic world with distinct cultures, history, and quirks that make it interesting and unique. Even though Kinch only gets to experience a few places on his journey, we are left with the impression that the world is much larger still and is moving forward even without our characters there to experience it. The characters themselves represent a range of unique cultures and their actions are guided both by these and a complex history of conflict and relationships. Not only does this add to the complexity of the world, it also gives each character a lot of nuance and makes each unique. In short, the world feels alive beyond just the experience of our main characters and I hope we get to explore even more of it in future books.

Where I personally loved this book, it definitely won’t be everybody’s cup of tea. Kinch’s irreverent and occasionally lewd commentary is a constant presence and is what drives the majority of the book’s humor. If you do not like this type of humor or can only tolerate a certain amount before it becomes annoying, this book might be a struggle to get through. I definitely feel that listening to the book contributed to my overall enjoyment of the story and so the experience without the narration might be very different. Still, a lot of the potential flaws come down to personal preference.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can’t wait for the next one!

*DNF at 50%*

"The Blacktongue Thief" sounded like the exact type of book I would love: an interesting, yet dark fantasy world, an unusual protagonist, magical creatures, trickery... How could this go wrong? Well, turns out it could.

I've tried to finish this book two ways: reading the physical copy and listening to the audiobook. I really WAS hoping this is just a rough start, and I would eventually get into it. But I, unfortunately, struggled through almost every chapter. This is the case where I feel confident about rating a book I didn't actually finish.

First of all, let me just say that I think the world itself is by far the best thing about the novel - it's what kept me reading as long as I did. There are so many interesting elements to it: locations, creatures, witches, magic and magical tattoos... But all of this world-building deserved a better story and a more interesting lead character. Oh, the lead character, I could not stand him, his embarrassing inner monologue, and his awful "sense of humor". I put that in quotation marks because I didn't even realize this was meant to be funny right away - I just assumed he's a really awkward guy, and perhaps as the story goes on, he will grow into someone more clever and more interesting. But no, that's just... his jokes and his personality. Needless to say I couldn't care less about his quest and what happens to him.

To add to that, that pacing was way off and very inconsistent, which didn't do my experience any favors. I also have to point out the singing. Yes, there are brief songs in this book, and they show up often enough to comment on them. They just didn't work, and didn't add all that much to the novel - mostly they slowed down the pacing that already needed help. They felt like fantasy-themed filler. Also, considering that Christopher Buehlman is known for his horror novels, I really expected more tension and creepiness here. Maybe this is something that happens more in the second half of the book, but considering I made it halfway, it's fair to say I was hoping for more than what I got.

Lastly, I want to mention the audiobook specifically: it's narrated by the author, which is normally a really good thing. But in this case I think a different, more experienced narrator would have been a better choice. I've seen some people mention they struggled with the accent, but that wasn't the issue for me (I actually thought the accent added to the overall atmosphere) - the problem is that everything and everyone sounds the same. There were times I just wasn't sure which character was talking, and the narration was absolutely no help with that. I know Buehlman narrated a couple of his other novels, and maybe this isn't an issue with horror novels, but for fantasy I REALLY needed more voice acting.

Overall, I'm really disappointed and I wish I enjoyed "The Blacktongue Thief" a lot more. I don't see myself continuing the series, and I'm a bit surprised by the amount of praise this novel has gotten from early reviews. As someone who really enjoys dark fantasy, this just isn't a book I can recommend.

Unfortunately I just can’t get into this narrator. I think I will love the book, so I’ll read it instead but the audio is not doing it for me.

Recommended by several friends and finally got the audiobook from Netgalley, thank you guys!

When I first of this story, the premise got me hooked but so did some of the other things like the magic tattoos, goblins, the battle ravens (oh, wish I had one), witches, and thieves galore. A great world with rich history, for the audiobook I really enjoyed how the narrator captured the personality of the thief MC as he tells the story. Plus, there were some good swearing.

Though it was a good and quick read, there was one main issue I had and that's the tropes. There are some of fantasy's common tropes littered in the book, some were barely noticeable at first but some were defiantly blasting the cannon and shouting "HEY!"

Other than that, good book and I give it 4.2/5 stars

I loved that this book was narrated by the author himself (five stars on an absolute stellar job done and well worth the listen just for that!). I loved the unique setting and all of the world building. And I loved the idea of a buddy comedy between a knight and a thief (not to mention their animal companions).

However, the story fell just a little bit flat for me. While I enjoyed all of the action sequences, there was a lot of exposition and Kinch rubbed me the wrong way. At first I found him witty and irreverent but by a third of the way through I found him a little too witty and the vulgarities kind of annoying. It felt like too much of a good thing.

I didn't really get into the actual story until about halfway through the book but from there I was hooked and had to get to the end as quickly as possible. Although I was annoyed by the main character at times, I like both him and the writing enough that I will be marking my calendar for the sequel.

The Blacktongue Thief, written & narrated by Christopher Buehlman

After recently finishing an audio re-read of THE LESSER DEAD, narrated by this author, I knew I had to get the audio of his latest book: THE BLACKTONGUE THIEF. I pre-ordered it so I could have it on release day, but then I found the audio available on NetGalley and here we are!

This narration is as great as I hoped and maybe even a little better. I already knew that Christopher Buehlman is a talented narrator, but here his performance is flat out phenomenal. Tackling several difference kinds of accents and languages must be very difficult, but Mr. Buehlman makes it all sound so easy. I found myself laughing out loud many times and I love that blind cat even more, after I heard the narrator's "Rao."

I've actually received an e-ARC of this book as well, which I read a few months back. This tale is truly an epic fantasy with all the hallmarks of the genre. Maps, different countries, languages and cultures. All the different creatures living in these different countries, along with witches, giants, krakens and kitties are all described so well, it feels like I know them. (The kraken portion of this story was so tense and yet, kind of funny too.)

And of course, like most of the best fantasies, we have magic; magic that shows up in all sorts of unexpected ways and in unexpected things…like cats or tattoos.

My original review of the book can be found here:

http://charshorrorcorner.com/the-blacktongue-thief-by-christopher-buehlman/

Once again, Christopher Buhelman has knocked my socks off and maybe my knickers too! If you're not reading his work, you are truly missing out. His stories are always exciting, always unique and always entertaining. I am finding that this is true of his narrations as well. There is nothing like listening to a skilled narrator performing his own work. I'm giving this audio ALL THE STARS!!

Available everywhere 5.25.21!

*Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the free audio download in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it!*

This audiobook was the best I’ve listened to in quite some time and will likely claim a spot among my favorites, to be listened to again and again.
The story is incredibly well written and has everything I could ask for in a fantasy novel from action to dark humor (really, next level here), all brought together with absolutely incredible narration. The author reads the story himself. I didn’t find him quite as versatile as some I’ve listened to, but he brings the main character to life in a way that is really quite remarkable – it really is like sitting next to the Blacktongue Thief himself while he tells you of his insane adventures.

I was expecting this book to be my favorite book of the year... Unfortunately, it was a bit of a disappointment. I hate going into a book with any type of expectations but I just couldn't help myself after reading the synopsis and blurbs from some of my favorite authors.

I still think it was a decent fantasy debut. I enjoyed the world and the humor but I wasn't very intrigued by the plot and where this book suffered the most, in my opinion, was the character work.

I listened to it on audio. As much as I love when authors narrate their own books, I didn't love it in this particular case. In general, the author's voice was enjoyable to listen to but I didn't find the character voices to be distinct enough and it resulted in me being confused quite often. I also didn't like how loud singing parts were compare to the rest of the audiobook.

I liked it enough to continue the series. I think I'm going to try and re-read this book physically before book two comes out and hopefully enjoy it more.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for providing an early audiobook!

I just finished The Blacktongue Thief a couple of hours ago, and my first coherent thought was simply “WOW!” followed by a long string of “Wow”s and gibbering into squeeing incoherence after that.

Also leaving me with an epic book hangover that may not fade for days as my thoughts tumble over one another – and me without a Catfall ring to keep them from breaking when they all hit the ground.

A Catfall ring, like the one that Kinch Na Shannack pockets on his way through this story. Is a thief’s tool. A ring that has the right kind of magic to help him fall like a cat and land more-or-less unharmed if he has to fall from too great a height. Which he probably will, because Kinch is a thief.

A member in rather bad standing of the Takers’ Guild, as the thieves’ guild is known in his extremely messed up world.

Not just Kinch’s own situation, but the world itself is so FUBAR’d that I found myself thinking that this was really a kind of post-apocalyptic story. It’s just that Kinch’s world isn’t our world so their apocalypse doesn’t look like our apocalypse would look.

But it feels like a story about what happens after the end of the world all the same.

Kinch is a thief who has been set on the trail of a mercenary warrior in order to pay off some of his debt to his guild. The Takers Guild is clearly a racket and a con job from start to finish, and it’s equally clear that the very first people it steals from are its own members.

Not that it doesn’t steal from pretty much everyone else, everywhere, all the time. If there is one thing the Takers Guild is very talented at, it’s taking. After all, it’s in the name.

Kinch, at first, doesn’t know why he’s been set to get into the good graces, such as they are, of the Espanthian warrior Galva. He has no idea that his mission is going to turn into a quest that will shake the foundation of empires and change his worldview forever.

Nor that it will break his heart.

Escape Rating A++: At first, before we – or Kinch – really understand the stakes of his journey, it seems as if The Blacktongue Thief is going to be epic fantasy by way of sword and sorcery. And there is a lens through which the early parts of Kinch’s tale read like the best of that old school of magic and swashbuckling. Kinch is just the type of antihero who narrates the many of those old stories, and he’s following a warrior on a mad quest with the help of not a little magic and not a few mages.

Howsomever, in spite of the self-deprecating humor that Kinch can’t resist, his extremely jaundiced view of his world, his place in it and his utter inability not to make a terrible joke or snark about his surroundings and the people in them, this isn’t quite sword and sorcery after all.

Instead, as a friend pointed out in his own review, The Blacktongue Thief might be better described as “maturesmirk”, where the grimness of the world and much of the action in it reflects grimdark fantasy like Game of Thrones while viewing it through a scrim of snarktastic gallows humor rather than just looking at it through the opening of a noose.

(Be advised that a Google search for the term “maturesmirk” will bring up a surprising amount of “adult material” along with the books. Kinch would approve.)

The story is told by Kinch himself, clearly as a memoir narrated at a much later point. So about the only thing we know is that he survived. Everyone else – well, we’ll find out eventually. Probably. Hopefully.

But it’s both being inside Kinch’s head and experiencing his memory while also hearing his thoughts and asides and attempts to distract himself and commentary and it seems like every glimmer of an idea or a joke that flies around inside his head. If you like stories told in snarkcasm, hearing both the things the character says and all the things he does his best to keep behind his teeth, this one is awesome.

Speaking of being inside Kinch’s head, The Blacktongue Thief is the first time I picked up an “Advance Listening Copy” from NetGalley instead of just waiting to buy the audio on Audible after it came out. Going in, I had a certain amount of trepidation about the author reading his own work. When it works, as it does for Mary Robinette Kowal and Neil Gaiman, it really, really works. But when it doesn’t work, it can be pretty awful.

This, however, worked so well I felt like I was listening to Kinch rather than to the author. Which turns out to be not really surprising, as the author performs regularly at Renaissance Faires as ‘Christophe the Insultor’. It may be that there’s a lot of ‘Christophe’ in Kinch, or a lot of Kinch in ‘Christophe’, or just a lot of the author’s voice in both.

Listening to, for all intents and purposes Kinch telling his own story just made the whole book that much better. I did read the last couple of chapters in ebook because I just ran out of patience and time.

This is not a story that is good for heroes, to paraphrase Varric Tethras, but it is a story that is chock full of them. Not the kind of heroes that lead great armies into mighty battles against the nearly overwhelming forces of evil, but rather people who get the job that has to be done, done, by getting into the muck and the mire and coming out swinging.

It’s also a story where the forces of evil, such as they are, are not led by monstrous beings of great monstrousness, but rather this is a story about the evil that men and women – and people of all races and species – do to each other in order to get one up on everyone else.

These are characters to fall in love with, to cry over and to cheer for, frequently all at the same time. I can’t wait to travel with them again.

One last thing, because I just can’t stop. There’s a point in the story, a little past the half, where Kinch gives the most beautiful, most poignant, most bittersweet invocation to his lover’s memory that it brought tears to my eyes. It is so clear that he loved her, and so sad that it makes it obvious that whatever happened along their journey – which we don’t even know yet – their romance did not come to a happy ending – but come to an ending it certainly did. And from whatever point in his life that Kinch is at when he writes this memoir, he still mourns her.

It’s love, it’s poetry, it’s just beautiful words said absolutely perfectly. And it made me cry. Maybe it will make you cry too.

The Blacktongue Thief is the best SFF book of 2021 yet! We primarily do booktube and podcast format reviews, so see the attached link and our feed.

Kinch Na Shannack is a trained thief who is forced to go on a quest with a knight, a witch and a blind cat. The book has the standard fantasy trope: go on quest, encounter obstacle (kraken, goblin), battle and defeat obstacle, repeat. This wasn’t a terribly long book, but it felt like it had a lot of filler during which Kinch just rambled on. I did like the world building in this book, but the rest of the book just wasn’t for me. There was a lot of humor that would appeal to 11 year old boys - scatological, lewd, profane and silly. There was also a lot of gore. If those things appeal to you, you will probably enjoy the book more than I did. You might also make out better reading the print book rather than listening to the audiobook. The audiobook was read by the author who employed a very heavy, and often unintelligible Irish accent (plus a few other indeterminate accents). Even though I listened at a lower speed than usual, I missed a lot. Of course, if you skip the audiobook, you won’t hear the songs that Kinch sings. I didn’t hate this book but I probably won’t read the rest of the series.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the publisher.

So I was going to do a should you read it episode for this one but I decided to scrap it because unfortunately I did not like this one at all. I went into it totally thinking I was going to love it because it had everything I normally enjoy but yeah I didn’t want a singular video of me just giving constant negative feedback and criticisms so here we are. Short review because I really can’t think of much positive.

So the goodreads page for this book is absolutely flooded with praise so I am definitely the odd one out here. One of those times where you feel like you read a totally different book than everyone else. I’m currently experiencing that. This was just all over the place for me. Every single fantasy element you can think of, I feel like the author tried to mush into every page. There is so much going on that it all felt pointless. Nothing was motivating me to keep going even the epic quest the characters had to complete felt bogged down, well bogged down isn’t the right words for it, maybe aimless, unproductive.

I did really enjoy reading about the cultures of the giants, goblins and the wars they fought in the past so world building good but once that was over and the characters interacted, I noticed that the book reads like a play script. I don’t know that’s just the vibe I got and it’s the first thing I wrote down in my notes. Just the way the dialogue is structured, how fast the scenes are one after another. Maybe this would be a great Broadway show.

Oh and the slang the characters spoke in was a bit too much, it’s just HUGELY over-played for me personally. It makes it sometimes impossible to decipher the true nature of what is being said which is maybe why I couldn’t get behind much of the humor that was being displayed and I love funny fantasy, I mean kings of the wyld is one of my favorite books but read that instead.